Category: Honey

Last weekend, I made a valentine cake. And it was delicious. I was impressed with myself.

I don’t typically make layer cakes. Mostly because transporting a layer cake is a huge pain-in-the-you-know-what, but also because…I am missing whatever gene is necessary to be a rockstar at fancy cake decorating. I am better at what we’ll call “rustic” cake decorating. My version of rustic cake decorating is 1 part legit creativity and 2 parts preschool-style artwork. I’m totally okay with it. I own it. And oddly, I’m a pretty baller cupcake decorator. It’s weird how that pans out, huh?

See what I did there with my new alphabet cookie cutters? So cheesy.

A few things about this cake:

You should absolutely make your own almond paste. It is SO MUCH TASTIER than the store bought stuff. All you need is almonds, honey, water, and sugar. Here’s a link on how to do it — you can half the recipe and have way more than enough for this cake.

If you want to have a chocolate-almond layer like I did, bake half your batter as stated in the recipe, and then fold 1/4 to 1/3 cup of cocoa powder into the remaining half before you bake. I actually ended up baking about 2/3 of the batter in round one (plain almond) and 1/3 of the batter in round 2 (chocolate-almond). My chocolate layer was much thinner. Which is fine, as I didn’t want to overpower the plain almond layers. If you want an even showing of chocolate-almond and plain almond cake, divide your batter in half.

I baked my cake layers in an 8×8 square pan, and cut the layers in half to make a cake that was 8″ x 4″. If you do this, you’ll need to keep an eye on your cakes as your baking time might be a bit shorter.

For chocolate hearts — melt chocolate in a double boiler or the microwave, put it in a piping bag or a ziploc bag with one of the corners snipped off, and pipe directly onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet. I put mine in the freezer to help them solidify faster.

I also made my own sprinkles. It was fun? But store bought ones are just fine, and probably won’t start disintegrating into the frosting 5 hours after you make it.

According to Molly, this cake is not to be made at any other time of year than Valentine’s Day, but I can’t say that I’ll abide by that rule. It’s too good to wait a full year before making it again!

I added a thin layer of blackberry jam between my layers (in addition to the frosting).

The “frosting” on this cake is actually just whipped cream. It balances the cake out perfectly. Make sure you whip your cream thoroughly enough that it is structurally sound. Also, this means you can’t just leave this cake sitting out for long periods of time, lest your dairy spoil (ew) and whipped cream start to melt/un-whip itself (double ew).

Is banana bread seasonal? Or is it just one of those bread situations that randomly reappears every so often, whenever there are enough over-ripe bananas floating about your kitchen?

Banana bread is weird. It doesn’t feel summery, or fall-ish. It doesn’t identify with any specific occasion or holiday. It doesn’t have a particular vibe about it. It’s just one of those “whenever the time is right” kind of breads. I think of zucchini bread in the same way. Continue reading →

Do you ever have one of those days where you feel like you smell faintly of whatever you cooked for dinner the previous night? That is happening to me right now (and yes, I swear I DID take a shower this morning.) Apparently the latke/matzoh ball soup smell migrated directly from my kitchen into my closet, despite being on opposite ends of the apartment. Oh well, I suppose there are worse things I could smell like.

It’s December! Can you believe it? Excuse me while I shamelessly dance in my desk chair at work (not chair dance, as I think dancing in a chair and chair dancing might be two different things, one far more appropriate than the other…) to my Christmas with the Rat Pack album and stare at my twinkly USB holiday tree.

How was your thanksgiving/friendsgiving? Ours was delightful. We didn’t overcommit on the cooking/food front, for which I am very glad. It was totally non-stressful. The turkey enchiladas were insanely delicious, and made much better leftovers than 10 million slices of roasted turkey (though I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss my traditional day-after-Thanksgiving turkey sandwich a little.) While I neglected to take photos of the enchiladas, kale salad, and potatoes, I did manage to get some snaps of our lunch/appetizer situation and the pies. I’ll share the pies with you today, and the savory profiteroles and squash butter with you later this week. Continue reading →